


In The Night

by starlinglou



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 18:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlinglou/pseuds/starlinglou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>As he comes directly underneath a streetlamp, he trips, and falls and immediately wishes he had called his mother earlier to say he loved her because he’s surely going to die because this strange man chasing him was surely going to kill him.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Night

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like there's a disheartening lack of vampires AU and so this happened
> 
> *:･ﾟ✧can also be found at otplovebirds on tumblr*:･ﾟ✧

The sun is just setting and the sky is splashed red and orange, and Zayn watches as the man walks home.

  
He seems like an easy enough target. He’s alone, he’s just left a bar, and night is starting to fall. All Zayn has to do is wait a few more minutes and then it will be dark enough for him to attack. He breathes in deeply, tasting the air and the faint scent of the man masked by a strong smell of alcohol.

  
He carefully falls into step just behind the man, waiting for him to pass by an alley or anything like it when he sees the man’s face for the first time, in the reflection of a window. He stumbles slightly (he’s not sure why) and the targeted man hears him.

  
"Josh? Mate, that you?"

  
Zayn hisses at his own clumsiness, and grabs the man roughly from behind, covering his mouth to stifle his attempted shouts. He drags him into the nearest dark doorway- out of sight -, as the young man tries feebly to break free from his grasp. Zayn can’t help but chuckle a little at this.  
Then the young man does something so unexpected that Zayn almost lets him go right there. He begins to cry. Zayn can feel the young man’s tears roll onto his hand, warm and wet. He may be a monster, but he, too, was once human and he isn’t cruel and cold.

  
And then, the young man bites down hard on the hand that covers covering his mouth, and Zayn yelps out more from shock than in pain, and reflectively lets go of the young man.

  
Zayn silently watches as he runs away.

  
***

  
Niall doesn’t sleep for the next forty-eight hours. He has the uncanny feeling that he’s being watched. Or maybe not being watched, per say. It’s more like, a compulsive need to glance over his own shoulder every few seconds just to make sure that no one is following him.

  
He decides to not leave his house. Ever.

  
***

  
Not leaving his house lasts a little less than week. And then, Niall finally works up enough courage to leave once again (it was more because there wasn’t any more food in the kitchen and he hadn’t eaten since morning), and he ventures out to the nearest store. It’s just gotten dark and the streetlights are just coming on.

  
He walks down the street, trying to look casual while in reality he’s scared shitless of getting attacked again. He passes by a dark doorway, and he cringes slightly. And then he hears footsteps behind him.

  
Without looking back, he quickens his step and when he hears the footsteps behind speed up also, he breaks into a run, not bothering to hide his fear. As he comes directly underneath a streetlamp, he trips, and falls and immediately wishes he had called his mother earlier to say he loved her because he’s surely going to die because this strange man chasing him was surely going to kill him.

  
The man creeps closer to him, coming into full view underneath the streetlight. He was, to put it quite simply, beautiful. He had an unearthly quality about him, but was beautiful all the same. Niall takes in a sharp breath, and moves away from him, some inner instinct telling him that this man was dangerous despite his beauty.

  
"I won’t hurt you, I swear," he breathes out. His voice is soft and pleasant sounding, and it stops Niall in his tracks.

  
"Please? Don’t run away. I’m tired of chasing you."

  
The stranger’s words, _I’m tired of chasing you_ , reverberate around Niall’s head. So he was the same man from the other night, the cause of those uncanny feelings, the reason for looking over his shoulder all the time. But then he looks into the stranger’s eyes and all notions of being murdered are suddenly thrown from his mind.

  
"Niall, that’s your name, right?" The man’s eyes shine brightly in the dim streetlight. "Please, Niall. I promise I won’t hurt you."

  
Niall’s brain is urging at him to move, to shout, to do something, but his body won’t obey. He doesn’t know why, but something about the stranger’s voice, his aura compels him to stay.

  
"My name is Zayn. Hello," the stranger, Zayn, says pleasantly.

  
After a brief moment of silence, Niall manages to choke out a, “Hi” before clamping his mouth shut. He doesn’t know why he responded at all.

  
"Are you going to stop running away from me now?"

  
A blink, a small nod of the head is all the answer he gets, all Niall can manage. Zayn smiles widely. This was going to be easier than he thought.

 

***

  
Niall doesn’t see Zayn again for over a week.

  
He’s not really sure if it was some horribly wonderful (or wonderfully horrible) dream, or if it actually happened. He’s also not sure if he wants to see the man, Zayn, again or not.

  
However, the next time Niall actually sees him, he feels completely at ease. Zayn approaches him at sunset when as he is sitting on a bench in a quiet little park. He sits beside him without a word and watches the sun set. Neither of them say a word as they sit together in the darkness for hours.

  
Niall gets up suddenly to head home, and as he walks, Zayn follows beside him silently. Niall wonders what could possibly be going on in the other man’s head, but then he shrugs it off. Regardless of the oddness of the situation, it feel comfortable enough to him.

  
***

  
They fall into a pattern quickly. Niall wakes up alone sometime in the middle of the day and busies himself until sunset. Then he walks to the park. Zayn is there, waiting at the bench. They spend the evening together, and Zayn follows Niall home. Niall goes to sleep, and sees Zayn in his dreams.

  
Sometimes they talk. Niall finds out that Zayn isn’t exactly normal. He’s different - and that’s the extent of information that he gathers. Most of the time it’s Niall doing the talking. He talks about random things; the weather, his dreams, a song he heard recently. Nothing important, but Zayn listens intently all the same.

  
It’s only after a three months of walking him home each night that Zayn suggests that Niall should invite him inside his house for the night.

  
Niall doesn’t know why he didn’t think of that sooner.

  
***

  
When he’s around Niall, Zayn gets the strangest desire to kidnap him. To steal him from the world and keep him as his own. He’s always been possessive, to say the least, but even this random desire surprises him. But he gets over it quickly, though, because it feels all-too-natural that he should keep Niall all to himself.

  
It was his vulnerability, Zayn reasons with himself. It would be like kicking a puppy if he hurt him, or worse – fed on him. He was much too clumsy and weak to pose any kind of threat to him anyways, so what was the harm in keeping him close? Besides, Zayn loved the way he smelled, it was mouth-watering in the least appetizing way - if that even made sense. He couldn’t get enough of the young man’s scent, but it no longer made him hungry. He wanted to preserve the scent, bottle it and keep it for all eternity. Yes, that’s what he wanted.

  
***

  
"I thought people like you couldn’t go out in the sunlight?" Niall asks as Zayn puts on sunglasses. He had agreed (much to Niall’s amazement) to accompany him on his walk to the market.

  
"No, we can. It’s just that our senses are so much stronger than yours," and suddenly he is behind Niall, whispering in his ear, "And so the sun and noise hurts. But for you," and now Zayn is biting Niall’s ear softly and Niall is shivering, "For you, I’ll deal with it."

  
Niall wonders what he did to deserve such good luck. Because after all, it is impossibly lucky that Zayn hadn’t killed him and had fallen in love with him instead.

  
***

  
It was an unspoken agreement that Zayn would just move into Niall’s small house. It made sense, anyways. Zayn spent more time there than anywhere else. It was only a matter of time.

  
***

  
The first time Zayn calls Niall “janu”, Niall’s heart skips a beat. The foreign word rolls off Zayn’s tongue, yet somehow still sounds familiar - as if he's been saying it to Niall his whole life. It’s full of something enticing and yet it’s comforting at the same time as it wraps around him. “Meri janu, my life” he whispers again and Niall melts into his words and his arms.

  
***

  
Niall dreams of spilt blood and broken promises and wakes up gasping for breath with sweat rolling down his body. His hand trembles as he fumbles for the light switch, hurriedly trying to dispel the last of the demons in his mind. It’s only Zayn’s unnaturally cool hands on his face and his sickly-sweet breath on his lips that calm him down.

  
"What’s wrong, janu?"

  
His breath sweeps over him and Niall’s heart skips a beat as he tries to remember how to breathe properly. “I-I don’t remember.”

  
"Then go back to sleep, meri janu."

  
***

  
It happens for the first time when Niall accidently gives himself a papercut.

  
"Shit," he mutters, holding his finger gingerly. He presses down harder and watches as his blood pools at the tip of his finger.

  
He’s about to search for a band-aid when Zayn grabs his hand suddenly - Niall isn’t really sure when Zayn even got into the same room - and gently brings it to his mouth, licking the tip of his finger. Niall stares, slightly mesmerized by the way Zayn’s tongue laps at his fingertip.

  
"I wouldn’t want it to go to waste," he purrs, dropping Niall’s hand suddenly.

  
And then he’s gone, and Niall is alone in the room once again.

  
***

  
Niall is laying peacefully on Zayn’s chest as he begins to doze off when a thought hits him. If he tried, could he hear Zayn’s heart? He moves cautiously, placing his ear over where he thinks a heart should be and listens.

  
"You won’t hear anything."

  
His melancholy voice startles Niall and he looks up to him. “Why?”

  
"It stopped beating a long time ago."

  
"Then how are you breathing?"

  
"Janu," he laughs. "Breathing is just a habit for me."

  
Niall frowns, “I don’t believe you. Everybody has a beating heart. Everybody.”

  
Zayn shakes his head and closes his eyes. He doesn’t see Niall’s determined face as he continues to listen for a heartbeat. Nor does he see the look of pure delight once Niall hears a faint beating when he intertwines their hands together.

  
***

  
Zayn does many things so unexpectedly, and Niall has learned to always be on his guard around him.

  
But nothing prepares him for the day when Zayn suddenly spins around and throws him over his back and sprints off the park path and into the trees. Niall closes his eyes tightly as he hears the landscape whoosh past them. It’s an odd muffled sound, and reminds him of being on an airplane.

  
What feels like mere seconds later, Zayn abruptly stops and Niall’s hearing gradually goes back to normal. He keeps his eyes closed as he feels Zayn place him on the ground. It feels like…sand underneath his shoes. And there - in the distance, seagulls.

  
He cracks open one eye as Zayn’s arm pulls him close. He had brought him to the beach that was about a half hour away from the park. Niall opens his other eye and gazes excitedly around. He pulls away from Zayn’s embrace and sprints towards the water, kicking his shoes off on the way.

  
Zayn smiles as he watches the other man frolic in the waves.

  
***

  
Niall is in the kitchen chopping vegetables the second time it happens.

  
"Ow!" he yells, dropping the knife and cradling his hand. He had nearly chopped off his pinky, but had succeeded in only slicing it open. Blood flows freely and Niall frantically looks around for a towel to wrap his hand in.

  
And then Zayn’s hands are on his face, cool and refreshing as he tells him to keep calm. He take his bleeding finger and licks it gently, making him shudder slightly. He then wraps it carefully in a bandage and kisses Niall softly before walking back out of the room.

  
Niall is left standing there with the taste of his own blood on his lips.

  
***

  
"Josh, mate, ‘m sorry but I can’t. Zayn wants me to stay home with ‘im tonight."

  
"Zayn wants you to stay home with him every night. What about your other friends?"

  
"Maybe next week, yeah?"

  
"Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard that one before. Whatever, when he breaks up with you – don’t come running to me again."

  
Niall sighs as the line goes dead. He defeatedly puts the phone back on the table, and then slides back underneath the blankets with Zayn.

  
"I didn’t like his tone of voice with you," Zayn mutters into Niall’s neck.

  
"Yeah, well, I don’t like you listening in to my phone calls."

  
"I’m not going to break up with you. Ever. I love you."

  
***

  
Sometimes Niall wonders where Zayn came from.

  
"Tell me where you’re from," he’ll ask as Zayn nudges him with his nose. "Tell me something - anything."

  
"There’s nothing to tell," Zayn mutters against Niall’s throat. "I was nothing before you."

  
Niall shivers, but he doesn’t back down. “Where are you from?” he insists.

  
"Some place else," Zayn whispers into his ear, "Bradford."

  
Niall’s mind goes blank as Zayn licks his ear, and it’s almost as if Zayn hadn’t said anything at all.

  
"Where are you from?"

  
"I’m a model from Bradford," he laughs, pulling away from Niall.

  
***

  
On rare occasion, such as when Zayn is kissing his neck, Niall is overcome with an overwhelming desire to know exactly what it would feel like to have Zayn drink his blood, to feel his teeth pierce his neck. The desire is so consuming when it hits him, so consuming that his heart begins to race as he subconsciously exposes more of his neck to Zayn in hopes of enticing him to just bite him. Zayn never does.

  
And on one such occasion where he is kissing his neck, Niall is incredibly tempted to just tell the man to bite him already. Zayn feels Niall’s breath catch in his throat underneath his lips, “Zayn, just do-“

  
"Shh, meri janu. Don’t say anything."

  
"But-"

  
"You don’t know what you want."

  
And it’s true. Zayn knows this, but Niall doesn’t. Niall only thinks he knows what he wants.

  
***

  
Zayn knows that he can’t stay with Niall forever. Or more, Niall can’t stay with him forever. Eventually Niall will grow older and age and die. Zayn will remain as he is until the earth stops spinning, and even then he might remain the same.

  
But he knows that if he could, he would spend an eternity with him. If only Niall could last that long.

  
***

  
"So," Zayn starts nonchalantly, "Who exactly is Josh?”

  
Niall mumbles, “Nobody, he’s just a friend,” but Zayn can hear his erratically beating heart thump out a different story, and he doesn’t like it. He frowns as he contemplates his options.

  
"Well, why don’t you invite him over for dinner tomorrow? I want to meet your friends."

  
Niall’s eyes dart to Zayn’s face quickly, then back to his book. “Sure, sure,” he mumbles, trying to keep his cool. Zayn bites his lip in annoyance and frustration at Niall’s attempt to hide his emotions. Has he forgotten that Zayn can read him like a book? Obviously.

  
The next night Josh is sitting in the living room with Zayn as Niall is making drinks in the kitchen. Josh's hands are trembling in his lap and he avoids Zayn’s eyes while they awkwardly converse.

  
"So, you’re Niall’s friend?” Zayn doesn’t bother to hide his skepticism.

  
"Um, yeah. We’ve known each other for a while."

  
"I see," Zayn mutters, standing suddenly. "It’s hot in here, isn’t it? Let’s wait for Niall outside."

  
Josh mumbles something incoherent and follows Zayn into the backyard. “You know, I’m not scared of you,” he mutters defiantly under his breath.  
But Zayn can hear the his heart thumping frantically, and he almost smiles at Josh's attempt at bravery. He decides he’ll make it quick and relatively painless. Niall seemed fond of this man - whatever their actual relationship might be - so it was the least he could do for him.

  
***

  
Time has a different meaning to Zayn, it passes differently for him. He’s not sure if it’s faster or slower, it really depends on how he looks at it.

  
Time seems to flow slowly when he’s away from Niall. Which, he figures, is the case for all people away from their significant other. However, he can see the difference. He can see the people around him move slower, as if they were up to their knees in quicksand. He can feel the earth slowly rotate in small degrees beneath his feet.

  
He doesn’t count the time in seconds or minutes, he counts the time in breaths - Niall’s breaths to be exact. Thirteen breaths per minute, which would result in eighteen thousand seven hundred and twenty breaths a day, and six million eight hundred thirty-two thousand and eight hundred a year, and twenty-two million two hundred thirty-seven thousand and eight hundred breaths since he first laid eyes on him three years and three months and three days ago.

  
Before that, Zayn isn’t sure how he kept track of the time. He doesn’t really remember.

  
***

  
Zayn can see the signs clearer than anyone else. He can see the one gray hair in the thousands growing on Niall’s head, he can feel the one miniscule winkle on his face that Niall himself hasn’t even noticed yet, and he can hear the slower tone that Niall is beginning to use subconsciously.

  
But Zayn won’t deny it any longer, he isn’t a martyr. His breed are designed to be selfish, and he’s no different from the rest. He wants Niall all to himself, and he wants this Niall. No one else will do.

  
And so Zayn does the exact thing that himself promised he would never do. As Niall sleeps peacefully for the first time in months, Zayn slithers underneath the blankets next to him, and Zayn can feel the goosebumps that rise on Niall’s skin where their bodies touch. He presses close, greedy for the warmth that Niall’s body gives off.

  
Niall shifts, mumbles something in his sleep, and Zayn hisses. He carefully tugs his shirt away from Niall’s neck, and nuzzles his nose against his throat. He can feel the blood flowing inside and his mouth waters. He hadn’t realized before how much he had actually wanted to do this. He lets his teeth grazve over Niall’s throat, and he shivers.

  
"Za-Zayn?"

  
And then he bites, teeth easily tearing through the thin flesh of Niall’s neck. He feels the other man stiffen, then begin to thrash about in pain.

  
"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, janu. But this is the only way."

  
Niall continues to thrash about, but his movements get weaker and weaker with his loss of blood. The last thing Niall hears as his vision fades to black is Zayn’s soft voice, “We’ll be together forever now, meri janu.”


End file.
